


A Shoulder to Lean On

by BitterSnowflake



Category: Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28559634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BitterSnowflake/pseuds/BitterSnowflake
Summary: Thank you so much for reading!
Relationships: Tom Hiddleston x Reader, Tom Hiddleston/Reader, Tom Hiddleston/You, tom hiddleston x you
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	A Shoulder to Lean On

It wasn’t always easy dating Tom. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with him, not at all, but his work took a lot of time. He could be away for days, sometimes even weeks at a time. You sometimes felt as though you were living two lives; one with Tom and one without him. You definitely preferred the one with him in it.

It was during one of those longer periods without Tom that it happened. Depression struck and along with it came the anxiety. Well, it didn’t exactly strike you like lightning out of the blue, but it had developed over time. It was just that one day you came to realise that you needed to get professional help for your symptoms. It all happened rather quickly, you saw a doctor, spoke to her and she prescribed you those pills and asked you to give it some time and come back if it didn’t get any better.

During your time together with Tom, you wanted to have fun and focus on the good things in life, not bother him with your problems. So you kept it all to yourself, making sure to hide your medications in your underwear drawer so he wouldn’t find them. You didn’t think of that when you were in the shower one day, asking him to bring you a pair of clean underwear.

You stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around you before exiting the bathroom, briefly wondering what took Tom so long. You walked to your bedroom and frowned as you saw Tom kneeling down in front of your chest of drawers in the walk-in closet adjacent to your room. You went up to him and your heart sank at the sight of your medication bottles in his hands.

“What are those for?” he asked confusedly as he turned around to look at you with a slight frown. You had ripped the prescription labels off the bottles, so unless he already knew what the medications were for, he had no clue. You seriously considered lying to him by claiming that it was just vitamins, but decided against it when you saw the genuine concern in his eyes. He deserved to know the truth. You sighed and grabbed a pair of panties from the drawer.

“Let me get dressed first and I’ll tell you,” you told him. He followed you back to your bedroom and sat down on the bed with the bottles while you got dressed. You sat down next to him and tried to come up with a good way of telling him. But you failed to find the right words. “I…” you mumbled, but trailed off. You swallowed nervously and scratched your neck uneasily, struggling with the words.

“[Your name], are you alright?” Tom asked concernedly and put the bottles down on the bed in the small space between you. You felt tears form in your eyes as you looked down at your lap in shame. You felt ashamed of not being the girlfriend he thought you were, that you had kept your ‘malfunctioning’ away from him. “[Your name] darling, please look at me,” he requested and you glanced up to find him looking intently at you. “No matter what it is, we’ll get through this together. Just please tell me what they are for,” he assured you. You could tell by the look on his face that he was concerned and felt a strong urge to assure him that nothing was wrong with you and to downplay your problems so he wouldn’t worry about you.

“It’s nothing serious,” you assured him and grabbed one of the bottles of pills from the bed. “Those are for depression,” you said as a matter of factly and grabbed another bottle “and those are for anxiety.” You grabbed the last bottle from the bed and smiled reassuringly at Tom. “And those are just for when I have trouble sleeping. Like I said, nothing serious.”

“Nothing serious,” Tom repeated to himself and looked at you confusedly. “Since when is clinical depression and anxiety nothing serious?” he questioned seriously and you realised that he wouldn’t let you downplay this at all.

“Umm…” you mumbled and bit your lip as you looked away from him.

“[Your name], look at me,” Tom requested. You reluctantly turned to look at him, feeling nervous all of a sudden. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?” he asked you, again with that frown on his beautiful face.

“I’m sorry,” you said regretfully, again feeling your eyes water. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“The way you told me just now was perfectly fine,” Tom said and gently caressed your cheek. “Why did you find it so hard to tell me about it?” he asked seriously and you blushed.

“I… I suppose I was scared to tell you,” you admitted abashedly. It almost felt ridiculous now that you were sitting there with him, to think about how scared you had been of him finding out about this.

“Why were you scared to tell me about something like that?” Tom asked insistently.

“I don’t want to bring you down with me. I want to be a good girlfriend, a happy girlfriend who makes you happy. Not someone who brings you down,” you tried to explain and Tom sighed.

“I should have known,” he said and looked at you tenderly. “You’re always so concerned about the wellbeing of others, that you forget about yourself,” he told you, almost sternly. “Which is why I’m really proud of you for taking the step of getting professional help,” he added in a softer tone of voice. You blushed at his words. “You know I love you, right?” he asked and you nodded in response.

“I love you too,” you told him and he smiled warmly at you.

“I need you to know that I don’t think you’re bringing me down by telling me about your struggles,” he assured you and brought you into a hug. He spoke to you in a low and serious voice as he continued to embrace you. “Becoming depressed or having anxiety doesn’t make you a bad girlfriend. Don’t you dare to think that for a moment,” he warned you and broke the hug to get a proper look at you. “Is that clear?” he asked you, causing you to nod at him. “Good,” he said with a gentle smile. “I love you, [your name]. Which is why I want you to be able to talk to me about anything, not just the good things. I want you to feel like you can tell me if you’re having a really bad day or if you feel sad about something. I want you to talk to me and to be honest with me.”

You looked down at his words, feeling ashamed again for keeping this from him. “I’m sorry,” you mumbled.

“It’s okay,” Tom assured you. “I just want to make sure that you know that you can tell me about those kinds of things. You don’t always have to be happy. No one is happy all the time. I want you to feel like you can be yourself around me, whether you’re happy or not. I love you for you, just the way you are. You don’t need to hide things from me. I don’t want you to.”

“Okay,” you told him with a smile. He was being so caring towards you and it really warmed your heart. You leaned your head against his shoulder and sighed contently as he kissed the top of your head amiably. You now had a shoulder to lean on, both figuratively and literally.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!


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